


with only daylight between us

by meggie272



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 16:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2514530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggie272/pseuds/meggie272
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You couldn’t live in luxury if you tried. You get off on your own humility. If someone put a gun to your head and said sleep in this feather bed, with red silk sheets, or I'll kill you, you wouldn’t do it. You’d say: oh, someone else needs this more, I am only Commander Erwin Smith, saviour of humanity.”</p><p>Erwin, Levi, and a sunset.</p>
            </blockquote>





	with only daylight between us

There would be something honeyed about Erwin, that late afternoon, the way the thick hot light is gentle on his skin, but Erwin is never so soft, so malleable as that. Even the sunset cannot sweeten him. Levi is his shadow, as ever, small and solid by his side, watching the end of Erwin’s cigarette flare when he inhales.

“Don’t wrinkle your nose, Levi. The Commander must have paid half a fortune for that pack alone. It was a generous gift.”

“What the fuck does it matter if Pixis gives you a cigarette for being a good boy? They’re dirty. You’ll get lung cancer.”

“Do you really think either of us will live long enough to develop cancer?” Erwin asks gently. “You’re more optimistic than I thought.” He brings the cigarette to his mouth, his eyes far away, focused on something else.

“Why would you try and kill yourself? There are Titans to do that for you,” Levi says, watching the way Erwin exhales, the hard line of his mouth and the soft, dry skin of his lips. Watching the smoke, like steam from a Titan’s wounds.

Erwin looks at him then, as if he’s only just noticed he’s there, and smiles. “Maybe you’re right. Don’t worry, Levi. It’s not a habit. And I’m not in the habit of turning down gifts, either.”

“Since when?” Levi snaps. “You couldn’t live in luxury if you tried. You get off on your own humility. If someone put a gun to your head and said sleep in this feather bed, with red silk sheets, or I'll kill you, you wouldn’t do it. You’d say: oh, someone else needs this more, I am only Commander Erwin Smith, saviour of humanity.”

“Well, if they had a gun to my head, I’d be wary of their motives. Why do they want me to have red silk sheets so badly?”

“Because you are awful to yourself,” Levi says, “on purpose,” and plucks the cigarette out of Erwin’s fingers just as he is bringing it to his lips again. He leans in and kisses him on the mouth.  Erwin starts, and then relaxes. They don’t do this much, and it still takes both of them by surprise, every time. The taste is of smoke – fire and dirt. Levi holds the cigarette between his fingers and brings his other hand up into Erwin’s hair, which is as gold as a king’s crown in this late light. The bright ember smoulders near their faces, their mouths.

“See, I took that gift,” Erwin murmurs against his lips, his voice deep and rough and reaching all the way into Levi’s twitching lungs.

“That wasn’t a gift,” Levi whispers back. “I’m not doing you any favours.”

“If you say so.” Erwin pulls away and with the graceful, matter-of-fact movement of his big, blunt-tipped hands takes back the cigarette from where it sits, perched uneasily between Levi’s thin white fingers. “If you say so, captain.” He pauses. “Tastes better than the smoke, I have to admit. I could get used to it.”  

“You don’t need any addictions, Erwin, don’t be stupid,” Levi says, uncomfortable.  

“Stop making everything so complicated,” Erwin says conversationally, and blows smoke from his nose.

Levi doesn’t know how to tell him that simplicity is Erwin’s thing, not his, even with all the Commander’s strata, even for the never-unfolding puzzle-box of his closed and careful and self-hating mind. Erwin loves, and trusts.  Levi thinks too much about what happens to the one that gets left behind.

Because one of them will. One of them will get left behind.

The sky and the earth are a thousand colours – Erwin and Levi sit amongst them, light and dark, as the sun sets and the cigarette turns to ash. 


End file.
